Working Relationships
by VG LittleBear
Summary: This is an on-going collection of stories on relationships from Gibbs' point of view (POV) - there is no chronological order, and spoiler warnings apply for seasons 1 to 11 - please check chapter titles for more info. NB: The double meaning of the title is intentional ;)
1. First Impressions (team) s01-s11

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

A/N: This is an on-going collection of stories from Gibbs' point of view across all aired seasons.

**Working Relationships**

(by VG LittleBear/vglb)

First Impressions

The first time they met, Gibbs was undercover, and DiNozzo wanted to arrest him. Tony called him a dirtbag and chased him when he ran away. Then Gibbs was on his back, and swung a fist into Tony's face. DiNozzo pulled a gun on him. Later at Baltimore PD, Detective DiNozzo learnt that Gibbs was a Navy Cop. His name, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, had Tony in stitches. 'Gibbs', was quickly settled upon. They got the man they were after, but then DiNozzo had an epiphany. Stunned, the Detective realized his friend and partner must be corrupt. Gibbs followed him to Danny Price's appartment where he found Tony looking mad, and lost. It was that last expression that gave him an inkling of things to come.

Agent Caitlin Todd on board of the day's former Airforce One took Gibbs at first for the ME's assistant. Doctor Mallard, DiNozzo, and he had pretended to be locals. It didn't take her long to catch on though. After assuring Gibbs she could grow male equipment like frogs, Kate shook hands on letting NCIS have the lead on the investigation, and allowed the plane to be flown to Washington, DC. Until her Secret Service superior countermanded her, but by then Gibbs had Kate ready to stitch his rules on cushion covers. Including Gibbs' rule number 12, although she had gotten that one all on her own.

McGee not only had green eyes, he was as green as a NCIS case agent could be. Stationed at their office on the Norfolk Naval Base, McGee at first barely registered on Gibbs' horizon, except as comical relief. The kid tried to warn him off from speaking to a cranky submarine Squadron Commander. When Gibbs got into his personal space, McGee did answer his question, albeit in a whisper: 'I'm sure you can be difficult too, Sir'. He learnt to call him 'Boss' quick enough, even got out whole sentences when encouraged. Gibbs' team seemed to like McGee, hazing, and Tony calling him by McNicknames. Gibbs truly couldn't appreciate the academic's techno babble, but the SSA sure liked the geek's results! Timothy McGee had even gotten a tatoo to impress Abby with, leaving DiNozzo gaping as he caught the elevator to Abby's lab.

While Gibbs was talking to Jenny - former lover turned Director - Shepard, Ziva David had shown up at NCIS. 'Mossad', said Tony, when they mutually brought themselves up-to-date on the females standing in their bullpen. Gibbs distrusted her wild and sensuous looks while Ziva kept insisting that Ari was infiltrating Hamas, not working for them. Gibbs didn't care, he knew Ari needed to be dead. Jenny liked her though, so taking a chance Gibbs challenged Ziva to keeping him safe. And Ziva did, only then telling him that she had shot her own half brother in his basement.

The NSA Analyst was sitting on the floor amidst her papers, obliviously rocking to the beat in her eardrums. Situational awareness was not her forte, so much was clear to Gibbs. Finally she turned from the paper in her hand and jumped. The first thing out of her mouth was the Ellie Bishop rule about earbuds and flashing the desk light. A woman with rules, now that Gibbs could relate to! She answered their questions almost faster than Tony and Gibbs could pose them before sitting down again. When a second pen showed up, Gibbs closed the phone and pulled her up again. Saying it was her playbook, he had her follow him back to the Navy Yard.

\- tbc -

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this first installment. Reviews are most welcome! TIA.


	2. Worries Without End (Tony) s01-s03

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

Set in time: NCIS early season 4 (2006)

Spoiler warning: 1×20 "Missing", 2×10 "Chained", 2×22 "SWAK", 3×08 "Under Covers".

_**A/N: First of all thanks for reading, and special thanks for your feedback! I had several ideas for the next story in 'Working Relationship', but finally Tony grabbed the reins of my imagination. I immediately knew which episodes I wanted to include, but it's not so easy to get into Gibbs' thoughts when he tries so hard to keep them to himself. So I took my time, and here is the result.**_

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Worries Without End

'No one gets in trouble quite like DiNozzo', the thought crossed Gibbs' mind on Saturday morning. Funny how his mind worked, even when his team was off rotation.

When Gibbs had woken from his latest coma a few months ago, his mind had been back in 1991 but his hair had been grey when he'd expected it to be mostly brown. And he'd had no memory of Tony. He knew that had thrown Tony for a loop. The retired Marine recovered most of his memories when Ziva shocked him back into the present, but it had taken him a while to put his memories back into chronological order.

Gibbs had been back from Mexico for some time now, but his feelings were still topsy-turvy. He couldn't always connect situations with the emotions he knew had been there, as his grief for Shannon and Kelly was back to full strength, and whatever acceptance time had left him with was gone. When he had looked into his mirror earlier, his thoughts had flashed to Tony. Gibbs knew that he needed to follow his thoughts to fully recapture the closeness he'd built with his Senior Field Agent over the years. Grabbing a cup from his kitchen cupboard, he filled it with coffee he had set brewing earlier. It was still early morning, and he had time to simply sit and think.

The first time he had really been worried about Tony, Gibbs thought, was the night DiNozzo had fallen off the grid during surveillance work on the Atlas case. They had had their sights set on the missing Marine's CO. In the middle of checking in, Tony had suddenly dropped off. The SSA remembered that he had felt like a tiger in a cage, nearly driven mad not knowing where to search. Until next day when the CO's car had been located outside a sewer. Gibbs had had no way knowing that their suspect would turn into the final victim. A woman out of the CO's and Atlas' common past had been systematically killing off their old unit to avenge her friends' accidental deaths. Atlas had been ailing by the time DiNozzo had joined him in captivity. Only Tony's resourcefulness and support had kept Atlas going. When it was all over, Gibbs couldn't have been prouder of his SFA, if Tony had been a Marine himself.

With a wry smile Gibbs recalled Tony fishing for a verbal expression of his feelings. He'd told DiNozzo that he was irreplaceable, only to show him McGee sitting in Tony's place. That had been callous, but irreplaceable didn't even start to cover what Gibbs felt for Tony, even if he hadn't wanted to admit it at the time.

But one serial killer after DiNozzo was not enough! The next worrisome event had not been far off, recalled Gibbs, taking another sip of his cooling coffee.

Gibbs had thought Jeffrey White was but a thief. Looking to locate stolen Iraqui antiques, the SSA had allowed DiNozzo to volunteer for an undercover mission as escaping prisoner. While Tony had lived out his version of 'The Defiant Ones', Jeffrey had turned out more dangerous than anyone could have guessed. Following Tony's bread crumbs, Gibbs had found White's own partner in crime dead, and the fugitives gone again.

Gibbs remembered having gotten increasingly desperate for finding Tony alive. When he had caught on that phone calls from an unknown number came from Tony, Gibbs had started up the car with renewed hope. Only to lose DiNozzo's trace again, as well as his patience with his home based team. To his relief, Abby and McGee had come through with the buyer's location. At the end, Tony had sat unmoving in a blood smeared car with White sprawled across the back-seat, a bloody knife still clutched in his dead hand. Gibbs hadn't taken a breath until Tony moved. He had seen that Tony had liked the guy, even as Tony said it. Gibbs hadn't quite known how to show DiNozzo his support, only answering his empty eyed expression with 'I can see that'.

And that had been just the beginning of the assault on his feelings, when he had been confronted with a deadly sick DiNozzo. It had started with some horseplay around a vaguely addressed letter which Tony had claimed and opened. Unfortunately a cloud of semi white powder flew up, right into Tony's face. The entire team had gone into decontamination and isolation, but all blood samples were clear, except for DiNozzo's which showed that he had contracted a genetically altered strain of Y. pestis.

While DiNozzo had started coughing his lungs out in Bethesda, Gibbs had gone looking for an antidote. Unfortunately none existed, only a 15 percent chance of survival for this medieval sickness. Of all deaths possible in their line of work, he had never envisioned his Agent succumbing to pneumonic plague. So he had refused the thought. Instead he had told Tony 'You. Will. Not. Die.', wacking him almost gently on the head for emphasis. Then he had left, confident that Tony would survive, only to return next morning to take his turn at DiNozzo's bedside.

That episode had left Gibbs shaken, even now reliving the never ending coughs had him feeling cold. He got up and refilled his cup from the coffee pot. Feeling that this would take some more time, he got out a pack of cornflakes and milk, and set them on the table to eat while he thought back to another time.

He should have known better, but he had sent Tony on another undercover mission. Toni and Ziva had impersonated a married couple of assassins. Jean-Paul and Sophie Renier had had a contract for an undisclosed target at the US Marine Corps birthday ball. All Gibbs had had to worry about the first day, had been whether or not the sounds coming from the hotel bedroom were as fake as they were supposed to be. A full screen look at DiNozzo in MTAC had done nothing to reassure him.

Gibbs sighed, he'd instituted rule twelve to save heartache all around. Not that he'd expected it to hold forever, but as long as he could terrify his agents into holding to the rule, all the better. Crunching on the cornflakes, he returned his thoughts to the undercover operation.

A first contact was established, but they had gotten no identity at dinner either for the intended victim or the person having hired the Reniers. The next morning they had caught the FBI staking out their fake couple. Back at NCIS headquarters, FBI Senior Agent Tobias Fornell and Gibbs had agreed about their agencies working together. So when his dream team had disappeared off the elevator, he'd had plenty of backup to work with. But he had worried. Even more so since he'd realized that the Reniers themselves were the target. Knowing that his agents would try to get back to their room, he had put a trap in place, where they'd caught first one assassin, then another in Ziva's company. Worried even more now, he'd run with Ziva to deliver Tony from the room the agents had been held captive in. When he had heard noise of a beating from inside the room his breath had hitched, only to resume upon finding DiNozzo having the upper hand, so to speak.

Of course there had been other instances of danger, but often it was immediate, and over before he could start worrying. One thing Gibbs was sure of, if he hadn't gone grey before, Tony would have achieved it all on his own. Finished with the cornflakes, he cleaned up and got ready to go see Tony play on the local amateur basketball team. DiNozzo had given him that puppy dog eyed look when he'd asked him to come watch. Gibbs had only responded with a stare, but he'd only worry that DiNozzo would hurt himself if he didn't go.

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\- tbc -


	3. Mating Behavior (various) s01-s11

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

_**A/N: First of all thanks for reading, it's amazing to have others show an interest in my little flights of fancy!**_

Identifyer: vglb0004/Wr03, word count: 1113

Set in time: NCIS mid-season 11 (2014) - Gibbs' memories dating back through the seasons.

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Mating Behavior

Gibbs was still shaking his head about Tobias and Diane. As he had told Tobias the last time Diane had gotten married, Gibbs had been happy with her too - the day she'd caught her fingers in the car door. That was only partially true of course. He still liked Diane, but he should never have married her, or any of his ex-wives for that matter. Tobias, however, had always cherished good memories of the mother of his daughter, despite their divorce. Who was he to begrudge them a little happiness? Fortunately Emily Fornell had stopped asking him advise about her parents, but he had to admit that the family looked good back together. For Tobias' sake he hoped it would last.

Tobias had recommended for him to get together with an ex too, just asking him to exclude Diane. He'd have grinned at his waffling friend, if the subject had not reminded him of the one love he could never forget, Jenny. She had left him years ago, and they had never gotten back together in the time Jenny had been head of NCIS. That first year she was director, he'd been ready to forget all about his own rules, but Jenny had said no off the job. At times he'd regretted it, and sometimes he'd flirted with her just to see her reaction. He'd not been above torturing her a little, treating her like an ex-wife, but then he'd gotten blown up and his memory loss had thrown him right back to the time when he'd lost his girls.

The first time he'd seen Jenny after his coma, she'd woken him and he'd mistaken her blurred features for Shannon's. For a second he'd been hopeful. But his out-of-date reality had reasserted itself, and he'd seen an attractive redhead, telling him they had been partners. He'd gotten a flash of bodies moving in heat, and checking out her curves he'd thought it was her, but he didn't remember their story until much later. Ziva had jump started his memory at the hospital, but it had not been enough to fill up all the blancs. With the help of Mike Franks he'd put himself back together memory by memory. Never having put them side by side, Gibbs had been amazed by the number of redheads he'd been involved with. Mike had helped him make sense of his jumbled memories, right through dark haired Rose Tamayo, and his marriage to Diane. Mike had known about five year's worth of details, enough to usher in later memories that Mike knew nothing about. That didn't stop his friend from encouraging him to tell about his cases, often the trigger for more private memories through the years he'd only vaguely remembered at first.

By the time friendship and duty had called him back to Washington DC, he'd been in Mexico for four months. Enough time to have a grip on who he'd become, yet with enough buried memories to wish himself back to the beach south of El Rosario every so often. Still, one day out in the field he'd met Lt. Colonel Hollis Mann from CID. Ziva had immediately tagged her as ex-wife number four. Gibbs wondered what his team had seen. Hollis had been good for him, patient even. Over many weeks, Hollis called it months, they had gotten pretty close. And yet he couldn't talk about Shannon or Kelly, or what he'd done in revenge. All he'd said was that he'd put it behind him. But when Hollis had realized how much he was still keeping from her, she'd left him. He'd let her leave without a word, feeling sad, and maybe a little betrayed, too. She could have asked.

There was only one woman he'd trusted with his deepest secret, and he hadn't needed to explain. 'That BOLO on Pedro Hernandez, I closed it', Jenny had said one night, not asking anything, but giving him a long look. In hindsight, putting her house in order, and looking out for him. Several weeks prior he'd turned down her invitation to stay the night. He still didn't know if he'd left out of pride, the wish to make her woo him, or to protect himself. Jenny took it with good grace, they both had thought that they had time to work it out. Yet a few months later Jenny had died, murdered, although Ducky maintained that this had been a mercy considering the slow death her sickness would have given her instead. Either way, he'd lost her for good those years ago, with no further chance to set anything to rights.

That had just reinforced his belief in rule number twelve, going so far as to warn E.J. Barrett to keep her distance from DiNozzo some years later. Tony had shown up in Gibbs' basement the very next evening, telling him it felt good to have someone in his life who knew what burdens his job brought. Abby's insistant calls had interrupted them, and the case took over again, leaving their discussion in limbo. They had never gotten back to it, and eventually Tony moved on. Gibbs never told Tony of the heartbreak Jenny had dealt him with her 'Dear John' letter. He wondered if the younger man suspected the reason for his rule. Kate had very cleverly guessed long ago that personal experience had prompted him to ban romancing colleagues. Of course he had only stared at her until she'd turned away.

As for Kate, she'd realized quickly that having a boyfriend working with her as part of the President's security was unwise, terminating her love affaire at the first opportunity. Unknown to her, the Navy Commander died bare minutes after she'd left, making her a suspect. Gibbs had told her in a way that enabled him to tell that she'd had no hand in the Commander's death. Of course Kate didn't appreciate the manner, and pummeled his chest and called him a bastard. Gibbs hadn't minded. She'd gotten over it, and later asked him where else but work would she meet boyfriend material. Gibbs had told her very seriously to look around at church. For a good catholic girl, that should have been obvious, but somehow he doubted that's where she'd met those boyfriends of hers. And how she liked to glower! His favorite memory of her was probably the time in that submarine he'd held her against his chest during an emergency blow. Kate had stumbled against him, giving him a 'wow' when it was over. It still made him grin after all those years.

Everyone had a learning curve, but rule twelve was there if a guideline was needed.

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_**A/N: There are further subjects to explore for this collection, but it may take a month or more for the next one. I hope that's alright! Looking forwards to your comments on my take on Gibbs' thoughts. TIA.**_


	4. Cut Loose (Jack) s10-s11

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

Identifyer: vglb0004/Wr04, word count: 1200 approx.

Set in time: NCIS season 11 finale into early season 12 (2014) - Tag to "Honor Thy Father"

Spoiler warnings: 10x05 "The Namesake", 11×24 "Honor Thy Father"

_**A/N: This chapter gives Gibbs POV after losing his father. This is probably the last relationship story within this collection, unless I have another idea sometime soon. - **__**I'm grateful to all my readers, but special appreciation goes out for all kinds of feedback! And I'll never tire of reviews, so please let me know what you liked, or not, and what you're interested in. TIA, VG LittleBear**_

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Cut Loose

It was a sensation Gibbs was familiar with, losing a parent. He'd gone through this when he was fourteen. It had hurt then, and it hurt now more than he'd expected it to as an adult.

Then, his mother had upped and left him. She had been sick for years, yet she had put up a good fight. He'd lived fairly oblivious for several years, enjoying his childhood, but that last month she had gotten more and more tired. She'd hurt, and the only medication helping her made her drowsy. Every time he left for school, she'd told him she loved him. Asked him not to be mad at her.

He hadn't known how to handle it, so with a careful hug to avoid jostling his mother, he went off to school every day, promising anything she desired. He'd aimed to be good, tried not to get in trouble either in class or after hours to avoid anything disturbing her. After school he would sneak a look at her, adjusting the light cover on the couch she slept her bad days away, and left to do his homework at the store, or went to split wood in the backyard, essentially doing anything that kept him away and busy until dinner time. Every other day he helped his dad and LJ close up the store, his final task sweeping the floor before they all went home.

Until one day he came back from school, and she was gone. Oh sure, her body was still there, but he didn't recognize the expression, her whole body's attitude looked like a stranger's. If he hadn't seen her in the spot where he'd seen his mother countless days before, he would have believed a stranger had taken her place. He never told anyone he'd found her dead, water glass still clutched in a hand, and pill bottles emptied of their contents. There was only one explanation, he didn't need anyone to spell it out for him.

He'd very softly run the back of his fingers over her still face, and quietly backed out the door, leaving a note on the kitchen table 'gone fishing'. Hours later his dad had shown up at their favorite fishing spot. Jack had just stood there, both of them silent. At first the boy he'd been had just stared at the fish he'd caught and kept in the pail beside him. The fish was still alive, wasn't even hurt bad. He had caught it more by accident than design, the hook easily disengaged.

Finally Jack had said: "Your mother is dead."

The fish had gone back into the water, neither father, nor son planning on making a meal of it, let alone kill it that day. They both hadn't felt like eating anything, but a youthful stomach couldn't be kept down long. By the time they had gotten home at dusk, a thoughtful neighbor had left them a dish on their doorstep. Gibbs hadn't known or cared whose it was, or even what it was. He just remembered Jack silently dishing it up that evening. It was not their first meal alone, but the first without hope of being reunited around their table.

Jackson Gibbs never told his son about the coroner, the autopsy, or what the report said. Leroy never asked, but he knew. There was very little gossip about Anne Gibbs in town, yet he'd heard anyway. The adults seemed to think if he didn't talk, he wouldn't listen either. He did nothing to disabuse them of the notion.

Jethro had never promised his mother he wasn't going to be mad at Jack. Besides, it was easier to call his dad by his Christian name, just so he didn't have to think of his mom in the same breath. He wasn't the only kid with a single parent. But the others still had their mother. Not that he wasn't grateful for his dad, he just had trouble talking to him. Anyway, Jack filled the silence with plenty of words, making him wish for his quiet mother even more.

LJ Moore, his father's best friend had been around their house almost daily, but when Jethro finally noticed that the visits had ceased, his mother had been buried a week. LJ was not at the General Store, nor anywhere else in Stillwater. When Leroy asked about his godfather, his father told him to never talk about him again, ever. That confused him, and made him more lonely than ever.

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2014

Gibbs had been in the bullpen when Leon Vance called him up to his office. It was a day like another; impatient, he didn't want to sit down. So when Vance relayed to him the news about his father, he avoided falling apart. Even if his face had probably given more away than he'd realized, judging by the time and distance Leon insisted on giving him. Although he'd realized his father had gotten old earlier in the year, Jethro wasn't prepared for his sudden death. Jack had never said anything about having heart trouble.

He'd gotten through the first day, the week, the funeral. Even attempts on his own life didn't faze him. Gibbs kept telling himself that his father had lived a full life. Even if he'd insisted on working until his dying breath. He was okay with that, it's what Gibbs men did.

Gibbs couldn't get back the years he'd held himself apart, yet Jack's final years had seen them reconnect, maybe at a deeper level than if they hadn't lost contact, then gone through their reconciliation. He knew his dad had forgiven him, even if he had never completely understood why he'd isolated himself from the rest of the family when everything fell apart for him. Despite both of their tempers flaring up time and again, they had come to appreciate each other, and his father had been proud of him, as he was of his father.

No, it was not regrets he was feeling, and at first he had not paid it any attention.

Of course thoughts of Shannon, and his darling daughter Kelly never left him for long. When he'd first lost them, and the repeat of this time his temporary memory loss had imposed on him years later, the feeling of coming undone had been strong. He'd lost his family, and yet he'd still been bound in the cycle of life, as son to his father. As he gradually came to realize, he hadn't known how much that had meant to him until it was gone, too.

And yet there were moments he found his laugh, an armful of Abby out in the sun, advising and encouraging Tim, or sharing a quiet evening with Tony planning strategy. And more than ever Gibbs counted on his friendship with Ducky, who understood about parents aging, and leaving them behind, the final generation.

_\- finis -_


End file.
